By combining a new generation of piezoelectric nanogenerators with two types of nanowire sensors, researchers have created what are believed to be the first self-powered nanometer-scale sensing devices that draw power from the conversion of mechanical energy.

In the Max Planck Institute for NanoBiophotonics in Goettingen, Stefan Hell has developed fluorescence microscopy methods for observing objects on the nanoscale and with his colleagues Vladimir Belov and Christian Eggeling a new series of photostable dyes that can be used as fluorescent markers has been realised.

Scientists presented a design strategy to produce the long-sought artificial leaf, which could harness Mother Nature's ability to produce energy from sunlight and water in the process called photosynthesis.

The University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering has developed a new Master of Science Degree program in Nanotechnology. The program has options for Nano Enabling Energy, Nano Enabling Medicine, Nanoelectronics and more.

Virginia Lorenz, who recently joined the University of Delaware faculty as an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, is working on one of the hottest areas in physics - quantum memories. These devices store information in a flash of light and may serve as the basis of future communications networks.

A team of researchers and clinicians from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the California Institute of Technology has published the first proof that a targeted nanoparticle - used as an experimental therapeutic and injected directly into a patient's bloodstream - can navigate into tumors, deliver double-stranded small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and turn off an important cancer gene.